Custer's Last Stand
by whitem
Summary: Jim Vincible and I teamed up on this to explain the story behind the slingshot...  R and R and let us know what you think...  one shot


**Custer's Last Stand**

By Whitem

_Created in part through creative collaboration with **JimVincible**_

Disclaimer: Neither of us own any of the characters involved in this story.

First Grade.

Young Ron Stoppable had thought that jungle law ruled in day care… he was surprised to learn that it continued on in some form or another. Finally, though, the jungle law of Pre-K and Kindergarten was behind young Ron, and things were just about to start getting interesting. He was about to take a big step forward, a step which could potentially shape the rest of his life.

While hiding in the boy's restroom so that the local bully wouldn't find him during recess, he heard some other boys enter. Being in the end stall, he quickly lifted his feet, and perched himself on the toilet so that when these boys looked under the doors, they wouldn't see him. He just hoped they wouldn't actually open the doors to check the stalls.

He heard footsteps getting closer and closer, and each stall door being kicked open. _Oh No…_

Watching the bottom of the door, he saw the shadow of someone approach, and suddenly one of the boys spoke. It was Arnie Custer. . . "What are you doing Vinnie? Everyone is out on the playground. There's no one in here."

"Sorry Arnie. Just checking." The footsteps walked away from the door, and Ron sighed, exhaling silently. "So what's the plan?"

"It's all easy enough." Arnie said. "You two just need to start a small fight between each other in front of the teacher, and keep her attention. While she tries to break you up, I'll go make sure 'Little Miss Goody Two Shoes' doesn't ever tell on us again."

"What are you going to do?" The other boy Charlie said, and sniffed. It seemed he had a terminally runny nose. Nervous fear, so easily identifiable when one's instincts have been honed on the playground, was evident in his voice. "She always hangs with that blonde kid. What's his name again?"

"His name's Ron Stoppable." Arnie said. " And he won't be a problem. He's such a wimp, he won't do anything. In fact, all I need to do is look at him, and he runs the other way. He's such a loser, all he does is play with girls."

"So after he runs off, what are you going to do to her?" Charlie asked.

"I found this in my father's bedroom closet. It was stuck in a shoe box behind a bunch of other things." Immediately Ron's mind clenched in fear as he imagined what dreadful thing Arnie might have in the box.

"Whoa…" The other two boys chorused.

"Is it… real?" Charlie asked.

"Of course it's real, knucklehead." Arnie said with a tinge of anger.

"That could really hurt someone, Arnie." Vinnie said, worry evident in his voice. He was as fearful as Charlie.

"That's the whole idea." Arnie said. "Now we're doing this after school. Are you guys still in?" The other two agreed.

"Good." Arnie continued. "When I'm done with Kim Possible, she'll wish she never told on us."

The end of recess bell rang, tolling ominously, and Ron heard the boys leave. He stayed in the stall a little longer, and heard other kids start to come in. They were all talking about how much fun they had at recess, and as everyone left, he was able to leave the bathroom with the group. Nobody realized that he was in there the entire time.

In fact, no one even missed him, except for one person.

"Ron! There you are." Ron's only friend Kim Possible bounced up to his side. "I didn't see you at recess." At least, Kim was his only _real_ friend. There was always Rufus, his invisible protector.

"I was around." He answered, rubbing the back of his neck. "You know, here and there."

"Huh. Guess I just didn't see you."

"That's OK Kim." Ron said, trying to get up the courage to tell her the disturbing news he had overheard in the bathroom. "Kim…?"

"Yeah Ron?" Kim was looking at him again with those big green eyes. Eyes that Ron thought were so pretty. He thought Kim was… pretty. Of course, Ron had no real conception of romantic attachment or attractiveness, but something about the way Kim looked felt _good_ to him. Her green eyes were like springtime after a rain and her hair seemed as red and sweet as strawberries. Spending time with her was like recess away from all the bullies and the midafternoon paranoia that plagued him. Kim was all of the things a first grade boy, at least a boy like Ron, might like.

Ron shook his head slightly, reminding himself that girls had cooties. "_Gross!_" he thought. Then, he remembered vividly why he wanted to talk to Kim in the first place. "Kim… I… I think someone i… is going to try…"

Kim interrupted. "I'm sorry Ron, but there's Walter Nelson. I wanted to ask him if he would carry my books for me. See you later in class."

As Kim skipped off, Ron's thoughts once again went back to her luminous green eyes. _Just what the heck does luminous mean?_

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_Two minutes to go, and Kim Possible will not be a problem ever again._ Arnie Custer thought as his eyes almost burned holes into the back of that hated, round, red-haired head.

He sat a few seats back from her in homeroom, and continued to glare at her through hooded eyes. The teacher was tired, and since she had already told everyone what their homework was to be for the weekend, she was watching the clock also, instead of her class. If she had been more awake, she would have noticed the raw emotion that was coming off of Arnie. Instead, she just wanted to go home and take a much-deserved nap.

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_I've GOT to help Kim._ Ron thought as he too was watching the clock, ready to go home. He couldn't go right away though, because he had to be there to stop Arnie from doing whatever it was he was going to do.

A quick check of his backpack in the last minute of class confirmed that he still had the wooden slingshot he and his father had made the previous weekend. It was so much fun shooting cans with it, and startling the occasional squirrel or rabbit.

He had actually accidentally stunned a jackrabbit with it once, and he was so distraught at the thought that he had killed it, he stuffed the slingshot deep into his backpack and silently vowed to never use it on an animal again. Until now. To Ron, Arnie, and boys like him, were nothing more than savage animals for whom the civilized world of elementary school held no appeal. If people like Arnie Custer had their way, Ron thought, school would be divided into some kind of strange 'food chain' with people like Ron at the bottom. Ron had to protect his friend Kim from that animal. . .

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Rrrrriiiinnnngggg… Just as the final bell started to go off, every kid in Middleton Grade School shot towards the main doors as if they had reached the final furlong of the Kentucky Derby. The teacher watched all the kids leave and then walked out the doors last.

Ron was one of the lucky ones to be the first out, and he hid behind the big oak tree in front of the school to see what Arnie and his buddies were going to do. He quickly rummaged through his bag and found the slingshot. Looking around for a suitable rock, he found one and loaded it, ready for whatever was going to happen.

He watched the front door and saw the teacher come out. Off to his left he saw Charlie and Vinnie, and heard them arguing. _Here we go Ron. No fear, no fear. It's all to help Kim._

"Vinnie, I told you before, and I'm telling you again. A Roger Maris Rookie card is worth 10 times more than a Pete Rose Rookie card!"

"No, no, no!" Vinnie said, his anger quite evident. "Take that back! Pete Rose is my hero! I don't care HOW much trouble he gets in to!"

"Well, your going to have trouble… right now!" Charlie launched himself at Vinnie, and the two fell to the ground, rolling around in the grass. They looked like they were fighting, but Ron could tell the two were faking it.

Immediately, their teacher came over to try and break apart the fight, while all the other kids who were watching were chanting "Fight, fight, fight!"

Ron looked around, and then saw Kim as she steered clear of the trouble that was going on. Her path took her right by the sign in the front lawn that said "Middleton Grade School", which was flanked on each side by large bushes. It was behind those large bushes that Ron saw Arnie.

He was about 15 feet away from Ron, and he could tell that Kim did not see Arnie. Just as Ron saw Arnie crouch and get ready to attack, he drew back his rock, and muttered to himself, "Fly true".

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Arnie crouched, waiting . . .

_He watched her with the longtime look through thin eyes. Waiting for the chance to hurt her. He couldn't stand the thought, or the site of her. Her buddy Stoppable was not with her so this was his chance. He wanted his revenge. She was in his mind all red filling it up with ruddy red thoughts. He wanted to see another kind of red. Liquid. He wanted her to hurt, and to hurt bad. She was NOT going to do that to him again. _

_His fingers curled around the cold brass, giving him comfort. It gave him power. To feel something that could hurt another, it was such a rush! His friends, his comrades, were doing their job perfectly. The teacher was distracted, the entire class was watching. _

_The time was now… attack now! Feel the power as brass would cut flesh, break bone, and damage that smug, pretty little mouth. A mouth that she would never be able to use again after he was done. She couldn't tell on him ever again! Ever again!_

_Step forward, she still does not see… No one would see… no one would know… what had hit…_

_What had hit… me in the head? Pain. Red liquid, on my hand. On my… head! Not hers, MINE! Look to the left, and there he was. Still holding his wooden 'Y', walking… coming closer._

_Anger… Anger felt is more… He's loading another… something that would hurt. Run! Attack! Get him before he can load again! He's scared! Good… fear can make a person… shake. The rock dropped before he could aim again… Jump…_

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"Kim!" Ron was able to shout as Arnie jumped him after he had hit him in the head with a rock. Ron felt pain in his temple, pain that he had never felt before. He flailed his arms out trying to stop the hits that were raining down on him almost too fast to see, but he was blocking most of them with his arms.

Ron raised his head in time to see a red blur tackle Arnie off of him, but not before a final strike caused his head to snap back onto the hard ground. Everything for him went black.

…x x x x…

"Ron…? Ron? Are you OK?" He felt someone kneel down beside him, and flinched as a soft hand lay itself on his cheek. "Please Ron, speak to me. Mrs. Clinch! Ron's hurt!"

Kim looked back down at her best friend, tears starting to flow at the thought that he was seriously hurt. "Wh… what happened Kim?"

"You don't remember?" She said, wiping the tears from her face.

"A… all I remember… is that… A… Arnie was… going to… hurt you."

Mrs. Clinch arrived, and hadn't seen Ron's face yet when she started to ask, "What has Stoppable done this… Oh my God!" Her hands flew to her face. "Stay with him Kim! I… I'll go get help!"

With a bloody nose, a severely blackened eye, and a swollen lip, Ron looked at his best friend Kim. He had only one question for her. "K… Kim? Are you OK?"

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Young Ronald Stoppable had ended up with a mild concussion that day, and as a result he never could never fully remember what had occurred. He was taken to Middleton General Hospital where a redheaded neurosurgeon who knew him well took off a shift from surgery to take special care of him.

Only one person, the villainous Custer himself, ever really knew what had happened that day, though two redheads had their own version of events. The younger of the two redheads had to explain to the older what had happened, from her perspective.

Arnie ended up being suspended from school for two weeks, after which he came back for one day. The next, his family moved away and they were never seen again in Middleton.

Kim never found out Arnie's real plan. Charlie admitted to the teacher what had happened, but an attack on an elementary school girl would have looked very bad, and since Custer had moved away, the teacher decided that the situation did not warrant full disclosure. Ron never remembered all the details, and as far as Kim knew, she had merely saved Ron from being hurt after he had foolishly hit a kid with his slingshot. Perhaps one day, Ron would remember what he had done and why, and he and Kim would reminisce about how he had won the battle that turned out to be Custer's Last Stand.

The end…


End file.
